By Sean Moriarty

Kerry Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly has called for protests to be held elsewhere other than outside Direct Provision Centres.

Daly was reacting to a situation outside Hotel Killarney last Saturday.

The hotel is a temporary home to 400 International Protection applicants including men, women and children.

It was also the location of a New Year’s day brawl that resulted in eight arrests and six people taken to hospital.

Encouraged by similar protests across the country, most notably in East Wall Dublin, a group that calls itself 'Ireland First' organised a protest rally outside the hotel.

The group were objecting to the number of residents staying at the hotel and are opposed to refugee immigration into Ireland.

Daly hit out at the group saying their actions at the hotel were inappropriate.

“I understand there are concerns and people have the right to protest,” he told the Killarney Advertiser.

“This is not the place to be doing it, there are people there who have come from situations of conflict. There is a newborn baby and a pregnant woman there. Take the protest to the centre of town, if you had a problem with A&E would you take the protest to the nurse’s house? If you had a problem with housing would you take it to the Council’s housing officer’s house?

Daly understands there are concerns regarding the number of International Protection applicants in Killarney.
However, a meeting of Kerry’s Joint Policing Committee just before the Christmas break was told that there were no reports of crime increases in the Park Road area of Killarney last year.

“There has been no increase [in crimes] and I have asked the Gardai to put out a statement to allay fears,” he added.

He has also spoken to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and has asked for more Gardai in the Killarney area particularly in the busier summer months.

He has also spoken with Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O'Gorman, the minister responsible for housing refugees, but added that Government has not done enough.

“The Government failed to explore the holiday home option, they have not moved on one inch since the whole Skellig Star debacle at the start of COVID,” Daly said.